A group of us decided to go to Cinque Terre this weekend. On Saturday, we had Taylor, Alaina, Jordan, Marie, Daniel, Nicola, Sierra, Diego, and myself. We went to La Spezia, just about a 10 minute train ride to the first city of Cinque Terre, to check into our hotels and drop our stuff off. That day, we also went to the Riomaggiore, the first city, and Monterosso, the last city.
On the way!
Here is a part of La Spezia. It really gave me a California vibe and I did not feel like I was in Italy until I had to speak to someone! We also went out that evening and the nightlife was definitely different too, with a much younger crowd than Siena.
Selfie on some random pretty stairs in La Spezia
I can see the ocean!!
In Riomaggiore, we got cone things with fish and chips that were pretty good
Main street/downtown Riomaggiore
We hiked up about 1000 stairs through the houses and got to see this view! (maybe slightly dramatic, but not much...) Even though my calves wanted to die, it was so worth it!!
I loved just watching the ocean and clouds, while listening to the birds there!!
View of the houses in Riomaggiore from the higher vantage point
Some of the group with the gorgeous view (just imagine it since the lighting is so bad and you can't see the ocean)
I want to go into this cove!!
We were supposed to go to the first 2 cities, but we ended up getting on the wrong train and giong to the 5th city instead. I'm really happy we did though, because it was the last day of their lemon festival! Anyone who knows me, should know I love lemon flavored anything and it was fun to see what they had! All over the city there were lemon trees and it seemed like all of the restaurants had specialty lemon food. I had lemon gelato, of course!!
We went over by the ocean and had a very nice view of the houses on this part of the coast and an even more amazing view of the ocean! It was a really overcast day, but it was not too hot or cold and it also made the lighting really beautiful. The ocean was so incredibly blue and clear!
While we were walking along the coast, we found an old WWII bunker that you can see on the left part of this picture. It was tiny and cool, but it smelled like poo!
In the city center there was a fountain of lemons! It smelled so amazing!! It made up for the poo smell...
And a lemon heart <3
With a selfie in front of it :D
We had to have seafood since we were so close to the shore and it was super good! The place was called "Il Piccolo Diavolo." I got the trofie pasta, that Cinque Terre is famous for, shrimp scampi style. I didn't realize that when you order shrimp in Italy, they give you the entire freaking thing... I pulled the meat out of the tails and thank goodness for 20-something year old guys that will eat almost anything! haha You could see the eyeballs though and the brain was still inside too...*barf*
ahhh close up!
Unfortunately, this dinner was the end of my journey in Cinque Terre for this weekend because it made me super sick... Scampi usually makes me sick in the states too, but I was hoping this wouldn't. I took the train back to Siena Sunday morning, made it ok, and then pretty much slept in my bed the rest of the day.
Overall, Cinque Terre really is beautiful and I would recommend going there, but there really are a huge amount of tourists. I wasn't expecting it to be quite as much of a tourist trap as it was, but the vistas were definitely breathtaking!
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